35. Alana
ALANA
“Looks like you’ve had some evening.” Asiya chuckled as we sat down in the cafeteria for lunch.
It was the first time I’d seen her today, and I kind of wanted her to talk about anything other than what Eden decided to leave on my neck. Not just my neck, actually, but thankfully the rest of the hickeys Eden left on my body weren’t visible to anyone but me.
“Is it that obvious?” I asked, covering the hickey on my neck with a hand.
“Uh, yes?” Asiya reached for her taco, not yet biting into it. “Why didn’t you cover it up?”
I sighed, taking my fork into my hand just to play with my salad. It gave me a reason to avoid direct eye contact at all costs. “I tried to, but apparently, I need a better concealer.”
“We can go shopping after classes if you like,” she offered.
I shook my head. “I’m going out with Eden.”
Well, I wasn’t technically going out with him.
We were still working on his Mille-feuille skills, though they looked better each time he tried to bake them.
Eden had mastered a simple cake so far. He could also decorate a cupcake, though they’re quite easy to bake anyway.
The trickiest part was the frosting, but he did a great job with that one.
His fruit tarts also needed a bit more work, but while they weren’t the prettiest, he was able to make them without me having to lend him a helping hand even once.
I was really proud of him, and honestly, I couldn’t believe how much of a quick learner he was.
If he continued to work as hard as he did, I was sure he’d make each treat look like a masterpiece in a couple more weeks.
Unfortunately, we only had until the beginning of May left since he was going to graduate then. I doubted we’d be seeing a lot of each other once he was done with college.
“You do quite a lot with Eden, huh?” Asiya said. There was something odd in her voice. She didn’t sound sad or offended, but not curious or interested either. It was very strange.
“Well, he is my boyfriend.” I couldn’t believe how easily those words made it past my lips now.
Just a few weeks ago, I could barely say the word. I didn’t want to believe that I agreed to such a stupid deal like fake dating Eden fucking King.
He was the guy on campus.
Everyone loved him.
Everyone wanted to be friends with him.
Everyone wanted to be with him.
Everyone except me.
Yet here I was, pretending to be his girlfriend, opening up to him, spending time with him outside of what we agreed upon. I was even sleeping with him, which was probably the weirdest thing that could’ve happened. Somehow, I didn’t regret it.
It was all so confusing, especially since the lines between what was real and what wasn’t were becoming more blurred with each passing day.
“Is he really?” Asiya asked, her eyebrows raised slightly.
“I mean, Lana… You were so in love with Austin, you couldn’t even tear your eyes off him if you saw him across the room.
You had the hots for that guy for over a year now.
Now you’re meaning to tell me that you met Eden once and a week later, I hear you’re dating him. How is that possible?”
I was a little surprised she hadn’t once raised any concerns before. To be fair, I rarely saw her anymore these days.
Louisa was right when she said we had to be there for our boyfriends.
If I truly loved Eden the way it was expected of me in this relationship, I would’ve wanted to see him succeed.
My support would’ve meant the world to him.
If supporting Eden meant spending time with his teammates and their partners, then I could do that.
Besides, they really weren’t all that bad. In fact, I laughed way more with that crowd than I did when it was just Asiya and me.
Lying to my best friend was the worst part of the whole deal, but I couldn’t afford to tell her. If she slipped up, it was going to ruin Eden’s life.
The whole internet was filled with rumors about him. Eden’s entire life was written down on stupid blogs like a fucking biography, as if he wasn’t a person who deserved privacy.
If he made one mistake, the whole world could look it up.
Tori was going to talk about him for months on her blog, and while Eden didn’t want to go pro after college, a tarnished image was still going to cost him.
“He is my boyfriend,” I repeated, though I wasn’t exactly sure if I sounded convincing enough. “Things change, you know? And so do people.”
“But you—”
“I never had a chance with Austin anyway, Asiya. I had to move on.”
She cocked her head at me, a skeptical expression painting her face. “But you had a chance with Eden? The Eden?”
What was that supposed to mean?
I wasn’t the most athletic person on earth, so what? And maybe I wasn’t the prettiest either, but someone was going to think otherwise eventually.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all.
And, alright, I was quiet and shy… barely had any confidence in myself, but so what? That didn’t mean I didn’t deserve to be loved. And it certainly didn’t mean that someone like Eden couldn’t be the one to fall for me.
He was the complete opposite of me, yes, but that meant nothing.
I cocked my head at Asiya, a heavy breath leaving my lungs. “You know, maybe the fact that I didn’t have a crush on Eden when we met was the ultimate reason why we’re now dating. I could talk to him just fine.”
“But you couldn’t,” she snapped. “You were a stuttering mess.”
“Because I was nervous!” Thanks to Eden, I’d gotten a bit more used to talking to strangers. It still made me nervous, but a whole lot less than before.
Asiya rolled her eyes. “You’re always nervous. You can’t open your mouth unless you’re talking to me. I’m just wondering how the fuck you, of all people, managed to get with Eden. The most popular guy on campus. The very guy who’s in direct competition with the one you actually want.”
I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.
As my best friend, I expected her to be happy for me. Sure, I was convinced she’d question my choices. I even expected her to be majorly confused. However, I didn’t think she was going to insult me, even if she wasn’t saying her insults directly.
“You think I can’t live without you, do you?” I asked, though I didn’t even want her to answer. “You don’t actually want me to find other friends. You want me to need you.”
Asiya’s eyes widened in shock at my words, a flicker of hurt crossing her features before she quickly masked it. “Lana, that’s not what I meant at all.”
“Then what exactly did you—”
“Is this a bad time to stop by?” an only too familiar voice cut me off.
My breath got caught in my lungs as my head snapped up, my eyes meeting Eden’s beautiful green ones. God, he looked so effortlessly handsome, it almost made me mad.
How could one single person have been so captivating without even trying?
He stood there, a small grin on his face, his eyes never wavering over to my best friend.
His gaze was so intense yet so gentle, I couldn’t help but feel a rush of warmth spread to my cheeks.
How was he doing this?
“We were just talking about you, actually,” Asiya spoke first, a hint of something annoying lacing each of her words. I’d never heard her speak with so much anger in her voice.
I mean, sure, I’d seen her angry before. I’d heard her yell at other people before, but none of those moments could ever come close to how she spoke to Eden.
“You did?” His eyebrows rose at me, and though I wasn’t talking to him, his eyes remained on me. “Only good things, though, right?”
Well… I wouldn’t have gone as far as to say we were talking about him. It was about me, I suppose. About how my very own best friend didn’t think I was good enough for the guy in front of me.
The guy who refused to look at her.
“The Devil is just explaining to me how you two ended up together,” Asiya said, her tone carrying something challenging. It was almost as if she wanted to see how he’d react. As if she wanted Eden to confirm he’d never be with someone like me. “I mean, it’s crazy, isn’t it?”
Eden’s grin faltered slightly, though he was a pro at keeping his composure, unlike me. His poker face was quite admirable.
Maybe he should teach me that one next.
“Her name’s Alana,” Eden said as his eyes finally moved away from me. “I don’t think The Devil suits her much, do you?”
“I’ve always called her that.” She lifted her chin. “But, well, you can’t know this because you two haven’t known each other for long enough yet. Alana can be quite the bitch.”
What?
I felt my heart drop at Asiya’s words. My chest tightened instantly, my hands balling into fists in my lap.
How dare she say that? And it wasn’t even in her usual joking kind of tone. She was being serious.
She must’ve been joking, though, because there was no way she would’ve put me down like this. Ever. Like… my family would.
Asiya was my best friend. She was the one I confided in. She was the first person I ran to when I needed someone to talk to.
She knew everything about me.
Fuck. She knew everything about me.
“Is that so?” Eden sounded calm, though there was this unusual underlying edge that caused me to shiver.
I looked at his face, surprised when I realized the stare he held on Asiya. The way his eyes narrowed, the vein in his neck almost popping.
“I’m surprised to hear you say that about Alana. She’s always spoken so highly of you,” he added.
We’d barely talked about her. My friendship with her did not concern Eden.
“I think you should go,” I blurted out before Asiya had the chance to reply. I laid my hand on his chest, urging him to leave.
At first, I thought he was going to comply, but I should’ve known better by now.
Instead of leaving, Eden covered my hand with his own, his eyes finding mine at the same time.
“Getting rid of me so soon?” The harsh edge in his voice was gone, replaced by the softness he always used on me.
“Yeah.”
He brought his free hand to my neck, swiping his thumb over the mark he left behind. A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips. “Hm… Alright. Under one condition.”
I chuckled. He always had to be difficult. “That would be?”
Eden lifted my face with one finger at the same time as he leaned down. “I need a kiss first.”
“Of course you do.”
However, instead of kissing me like I expected, he whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Promise you’re not lying?”
The words I promise were on the tip of my tongue, but they refused to get past my lips. “We’ll talk later.”
He cupped my face with both of his hands, his thumbs stroking my skin ever so softly. “Okay. Text me when you’re done with classes.”
“I will.”
Eden pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead before eventually laying his lips on mine, kissing me as if he hadn’t kissed me in months.
He lingered for a moment, and I was sure he would’ve kissed me again if I hadn’t pulled away.
As soon as my eyes opened, my gaze fell on his lips, which were now covered with my lip gloss. I suppose he was lucky that it was a clear one, so it looked more like a heavy dose of chapstick than an actual lip gloss.
Still, I had a hard time containing my laughter as I stroked a finger underneath my bottom lip to remove any possible smudges.
“You should probably wipe that off before going back to your friends,” I told him, about to reach up to do the job for him, but Eden shook his head.
He rubbed his lips together, spreading the lip gloss around before his tongue darted out by barely a millimeter. “It doesn’t even taste like anything.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll start wearing scented lip gloss. Would you prefer that?”
Eden chuckled, and God, that stupid sound made me weak. It was so genuine, so deep and sexy that I—wow.
Get it together, Alana.
“I’ll take whatever you want to wear, Ally-Bear. You taste way better anyway.”
My hands instantly slapped to my face, hiding it from everyone’s view. More importantly, I wanted to hide from everyone.
I wasn’t exactly sure who else heard him, but he wasn’t speaking quietly either. I didn’t want to find out, to be honest.
“Oh, God,” I mumbled.
I had to get out of here. Now.
A million escape plans shot into my mind, but before I could act on any of them, a loud sound interrupted me.
Startled, I whipped my hands away from my face, only to see Asiya standing up and her tray, including her lunch, lying all over the floor. Her eyes were blazed with fury as she shook her head at me.
“Now, look what you did!” Asiya shouted, glaring daggers at me.
What?
What I did?
My hands were on my fucking body. I wasn’t even anywhere close to her stupid tray.
The cafeteria fell into a hushed silence, all eyes on us. I could feel the weight of their stares, the tension in the air.
Even though nobody was talking, I could hear their judgment. I could hear the insults.
They were making fun of me. They always did.
How could she do this to me?
Asiya was mad, I gathered that, but she never did anything to humiliate me before.
Did she do this on purpose to gain attention? She knew I hated attention.
Asiya’s jaw clenched, her chest heaving with anger as she pointed an accusatory finger at me.
“This is all your fault, Alana!” she spat. “You’re such a bi—”
“What is wrong with you?” Kaan asked, covering his sister’s mouth from behind before any more words could make it past her lips.
Was it bad that I enjoyed seeing the way her eyes filled with panic as soon as she realized her brother witnessed her outburst?
Kaan pulled Asiya back, his grip on her arm looking firm but not harsh enough to hurt her. He shot Eden a questioning look but didn’t say a word. Eden shrugged in return.
What the fuck just happened?